


A Beginning, A Middle, An End

by bisexualsinspacee (MelonBiskitQueen)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Rating May Change, SHEITH - Freeform, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-11 09:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8974999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonBiskitQueen/pseuds/bisexualsinspacee
Summary: Keith and Shiro have a past, but only Keith seems to remember it. So what exactly was that past?





	1. Wonderstruck

**Author's Note:**

> If you follow my main blog on tumblr then you'll know that a few months ago I started a ficlet series with this exact title. A week or so ago I was re-reading what I had written and decided that instead of writing the next part it would be best to completely rewrite it, as I wasn't happy with what I had written previously. This is obviously that rewrite and rather than continuing with the whole ficlet series thing I've decided to turn this into a multichapter fic instead. Enjoy! :) (Oh and this does start pre-kerberos btw)

_*beep beep* *beep beep* *beep beep*_

“Keith! Turn off your alarm!” yelled Keith’s roommate.

Groggily, Keith reached over and turned it off.

“God I can’t wait until I can get a new roommate.” his roommate muttered.

Once he had rubbed the sleep from his eyes Keith glanced over at the now silent clock. It was five o’clock, time for his very early training session. He sat up and stretched. Every morning since he’d gotten into the Galaxy Garrison Keith had got up extra early so he could have a few hours before the other cadets. That, and he knew one of another cadet that got up around this time to do the same exact thing.

As he got up he made sure to be quiet as he quickly made his way to the bathroom. He didn’t want to anger his roommate anymore than he already had.

Now fully dressed Keith silently made his way to the door, quietly opened it, now outside he carefully closed it so it didn’t make too much sound. Now that it was shut Keith took off towards the training room.

The cadet that would already be in the training room was called Takashi Shirogane, however most people just called him Shiro. He’d been in the Galaxy Garrison a year longer than Keith and was the Garrison’s best pilot in training.

He thought to when he saw Shiro for the first time. His first simulation class had ended and he’d just exited the simulator when he saw Shiro on the other side of the room, talking to the class instructor. At first he hadn’t known who he was at all until he’d rejoined his classmates and heard them say his name. Now knowing his name, Keith had looked back at him. It was at that moment their eyes met briefly. Since then, when he wasn’t focusing on something, his mind would always drift back to it. Something had happened during that moment. He was still unsure what. Keith figured that he’d find out sometime in the future.

 

As he approached the training room Keith heard the familiar muffled sounds of Shiro’s boxing. He entered the room silently and, since the sun hadn’t fully risen yet, he stayed in the shadows so he wasn’t seen. Even though this would most definitely be the only time he’d see Shiro for the day Keith would move onto the simulator in a couple of minutes. One of his instructors believed in visual learning and so had asked, and even encouraged, his class to observe those training to see if there was anything new they could learn. More often or not, during these early morning sessions, Shiro would indeed show something new, but that was only if Keith was early enough. After a couple of minutes it was clear that he hadn’t been. As a result he moved onto the simulator.

Before he entered it Keith had already had a good feeling about this morning’s session. Today would, hopefully, be the day he beat the simulators high score. He knew that by doing so he’d be drawing severely unwanted attention by basically everyone in the Garrison, but he wasn’t about to let that hold him back.

Keith was coming to the end of his second go in the simulator. His first go had broken _his_ last high score, but had been nowhere close to the main one. Nervous, he watched as the scoreboard rankings began to appear on the screen in front of him. Because of the score he had gotten last time Keith had expected to get one that was either the same or slightly lower. He was extremely surprised when it revealed that he’d actually beaten the main highscore.

He looked at it in disbelief. He’d done it. He had actually done the impossible. He had beaten the highscore. As proud as he was for achieving this Keith had just caught a glance at the time that sat at the top of the scoreboard. It was ten to eight. The entire Garrison would be awake now. The cadets would be getting ready for their various classes and the instructors would be getting ready of what they would be teaching their classes, through the day. It wouldn’t be long before the entire Garrison heard of this.  

At this realisation Keith began to feel a little uneasy and could tell that the way his heart was now beating wasn’t to do with the leftover adrenaline he still had in his system. The thought of an attack quickly came to his mind and deciding against going through one he exited the simulator and made a beeline for his dorm.

The good thing about getting up before everyone else was that Keith had learnt where all the shortcuts to his dorm were. On his way there he could feel himself begin to calm down. He began to slow down once he was a couple of corridors away from his dorm.

A couple minutes or so later and he was finally walking down the corridor where his dorm was. He was roughly ten steps away from his dorm when he heard someone speak.

“So you’re the one who beat my high score, huh?”

Keith spun round to see Shiro, leaning against the wall with a cocky smile written across his face.

“What of it?” Keith asked.

Shiro shook his head. “Nothing, I’m just… impressed.”

“Impressed?” Keith couldn’t believe it. How could somebody like Shiro be impressed with a nobody like him?

“Yeah. I was wondering, you doing anything?”

“I was just going to take a shower and stay in my dorm for the rest of the day. Why?” He regretted asking why the second he said it. As much as he had dreamed and hoped something like this Keith hadn’t been prepared for it and was beginning to feel anxious, as well as slightly stressed.

“Well I wanted to get to know the pilot who managed to do the impossible. See you in the cafeteria in fifteen minutes?”

“Sure, why not?” As stressed as he currently was, Keith wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to hang out with Shiro. This was basically one of his dreams come true since the day they’d laid eyes on one another.

“I’ll see you there then.” With that Shiro pushed away from the wall and began to head back down the hallway.

Once Keith was in his dorm he quickly closed his door and leant against it. His heart was racing. He hadn’t been mentally prepared for that conversation so it had taken a lot out of him.

Even with the way Keith was currently feeling there wasn’t anyway that he wasn’t going to go meet up with Shiro.

All Keith had to do was quickly shower and while he was doing that he’d have time to mentally prepare himself for the rest of the day.

 

Fifteen minutes later and he was now standing in front of the cafeteria doors. Rather than feeling stressed and anxious he now felt excited. A small smile made its way across his face. Keith had a feeling that once he walked through those doors something a helluva lot bigger than beating a simulator highscore would happen sometime in the future.

Taking a deep breath Keith pushed those doors open and made his way inside the cafeteria. He was definitely ready for whatever that thing was.


	2. Starlight

It was nearly eleven o’clock at night and Keith was still in the library, studying. Currently he was going through an advanced engineering book. Yes he was in the Garrison to train as a pilot, but anything could happen so it never hurt to be prepared. He was so focused on the task at hand that Keith didn’t hear him approach.

“Advanced engineering? Huh, I thought you were studying to be a pilot.” Shiro said, accidentally making Keith jump.

“Shiro! Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?” Keith exclaimed spinning around, as much as his chair would allow, to face him.

Immediately Shiro raised his hands in submission. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Now-” since there wasn’t any chairs, other than Keith’s, at the table he made his way to another table and dragged a chair over. He then sat down before continuing. “-advanced engineering?” he asked.

Keith shrugged. “Anything could happen up there. Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”

“Once again, Keith Kogane’s proving why he’s the top of his class!” Shiro said, a smile written across his face.

Keith rolled his eyes and shook his head. Shiro could be ridiculous sometimes, but that was one of the things he liked about him. That’s when it occurred to him. From what he knew, Shiro didn’t have any reason to come to the library this late at night. So, why was he here? “Alright. Why are you here? I doubt you’d come all this way to the library, this late at night, without some sort of motive.”

Shiro laughed. “You caught me! I went to your dorm, looking for you, and your roommate said I could find you here. I wanted to show you something.”

“What did you want to show me?” Keith asked.

“Well you’ll just have to follow me and find out, won’t you?” With that Shiro got up from his chair and made his way towards the library’s exit.

It had been a couple of months since Keith had beaten Shiro’s high score and had accepted his offer to meet him in the cafeteria. Since then they had hung out quite a few times, but not nearly as much as Keith would’ve liked. Now Shiro had presented him with the perfect way to spend more time with him and there was no way in hell he was going to miss out on this chance. Keith closed his book, got up from his chair and went after Shiro.

Keith liked Shiro. He liked him _a lot_. How could he not? He was clearly the most attractive man in the Garrison. Only thing was he got the feeling that Shiro didn’t feel the same way. That’s why he hadn’t mentioned anything about how he felt to Shiro. He was terrified of scaring him away. Every time he’d thought of bringing it up the next time they were together a little voice in him told him to do it. What did he have to lose? Truth was, he had everything to lose. These last couple of months of getting to know him had been the best of Keith’s life and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to go back to how he’d lived life before getting to know Shiro. As a result he was content with ignoring his feelings. Even if it meant him being unhappy.

Keith shook his head and began to push those thoughts to the back of his mind. He had plenty of time to dwell on those later. Right now he had to stay focused on whatever it was that Shiro wanted to show him. It was at this point he noticed that they were heading straight towards the NORTH EXIT!?

Keith decided to start slowing down. “Umm, Shiro? I could’ve sworn we weren’t allowed to leave the Garrison!” he called after him.

Shiro turned to face Keith. “Don’t worry! I got permission! We just have to make sure we’re back before sunrise.” he replied.

“Are you sure?” he asked. The last thing he wanted was to get kicked out of the Garrison because he broke one of the major rules. If he did get kicked, he had nothing to go back to.

Shiro gave him a reassuring smile. “Positive!”

Feeling a little better about the whole thing, Keith continued to follow Shiro. Outside waiting for them was a red hoverbike.

“What’s this?” he asked.

Shiro chuckled “What does it look like?”

Keith crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “You know what I mean.” He was shocked at how natural that came out. Usually Keith would need to know a person a lot better, but it seemed, with Shiro it all came naturally. He didn’t feel the need to pretend to be someone he wasn’t.

“What I want to show you is in the desert so-” Shiro patted the side of the hoverbike “-we’re going to need this to get us out there.” Shiro then got onto the bike, turned slightly and offered his hand out to Keith. “Come on, let’s go.”

Keith gladly took his hand. He couldn’t describe the happiness that filled him as Shiro pulled him onto the bike.

As the bike took off across the desert Keith had to wrap his arms around Shiro’s waist so that he didn’t fall off. He enjoyed the closeness, even if it was just for a little bit.

It wasn’t long before they reached this large sand dune and Shiro stopped the bike. As Keith unwrapped his arms from Shiro he scanned the area. All around them, for miles, was absolutely nothing. He frowned. Why would he bring him all this way to see nothing?

He turned back to Shiro and before he could ask what they were doing in the middle of the desert Shiro pointed to the dune and spoke. “What I want to show you is up there. Come on. We don’t have long.”

Shiro hopped off of the bike and began to make his way up the dune. Keith followed.

When they got to the top Keith heard himself gasp. Like anyone in the Garrison, or around the world for that matter, he’d seen the stars, but never like this. Up above them, covering the night sky, was the Milky Way.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” Shiro said, pulling Keith out of his trance like state.

“Breathtaking is more like it.” he replied.

“Like you then?”

Before Keith was able to react to what he had just said Shiro pulled him in close and kissed him. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds, but those few seconds meant the absolute world to Keith.

When they pulled away Shiro let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head. Keith didn’t need the light of the stars to know that he was blushing. He found it funny. Out of the two of them it should be _him_ getting all nervous and not knowing rather than Shiro. Taking advantage of how he was feeling currently Keith decided to speak.

“Shiro, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to do that?”

Suddenly Shiro’s mood completed changed and he was somehow no longer nervous. “I think I have a rough idea.” he replied before pulling Keith in for a second kiss. “And please, call me Takashi.”

  
For the rest of the night they stayed out there stargazing and talking, finally getting to know each other properly. Both Keith and Shiro lost track of time and nearly didn’t make it back to the Garrison before sunrise.   
  
Being the gentleman he was, Shiro walked Keith back to his dorm. As the pair silently made their way down the hallways they talked in hushed whispers.   
  
Once they had made it back to Keith’s dorm Shiro pulled him in for one last kiss.   
  
“I’ll see you later today, yes?” Shiro whispered.   
  
“You know it.” Keith whispered back.   
  
They said their goodbyes and Keith entered his dorm. He shut the door carefully so that he didn’t wake up his room mate.   
  
Keith silently made his way to the bathroom to change to more appropriate bed attire. As soon as that was done he made his way to his bed.   
  
Keith was asleep pretty much as soon as his head hit the pillow, but that didn’t stop his last conscious thought from being about Shiro and the night they had just had.


	3. You Made A Rebel

Keith yawned as he climbed out of the training jet he had been piloting all day. He was used to these drills lasting until dark, but over the past couples of weeks Keith had fallen into the habit (thanks to a certain someone) of going to bed later than usual. He was pretty much ready to drag himself to his dorm and stay there forever more.

That being said sleep was currently the last thing on Keith’s mind. During his drill he had spotted something and gone off the radar for a few minutes to check it out.

He knew it was against regulations and that he could get in trouble for it, but he had wanted to make sure it wasn’t nothing before dragging Shiro out to it.

As Keith entered the Garrison he worked the zipper on his suit and shrugged off the top half so it now hung at his waist. His top half was still covered by his black tank, but somehow Keith felt exposed.

Since hanging out with Shiro everybody had been taking notice of Keith a lot more than he was used to. He was used to being ignored by practically everyone so he was finding all this new found attention quite overwhelming.

On top of that somehow someone had found out about him and Shiro leaving the Garrison a couple of weeks ago and this same someone somehow witnessed their departing kiss. Now it was all the other students could talk about and Keith did not appreciate it.

The extra attention had a very negative effect on his anxiety and it was taking a lot out of Keith to keep these effects hidden. Especially from Shiro. He didn’t want anyone to see his weakness, let alone the one he had feelings for.

Keith quickly rounded the corner and kept going at a fast pace till he was inside his dorm. He needed to get out of these clothes and shower before he ran off to find Shiro.

He had just finished drying and clothing himself, as well as a small backpack filled with supplies they might need, when Keith heard a knock at his dorm’s door. Keith groaned. He didn’t have time for this. He needed to go and find Shiro.

“Alright what do you want? ‘Cause I’m a little…Takashi!” Of course it was Shiro knocking at his door. Who else would it be? At least now Keith didn’t have to go all the way across the other side of the Garrison, to Shiro’s dorm. “I was just about to come looking for you.”

“Oh, is that so?” Shiro asked.

“Mmmmhmmm.” Keith replied as he stood on his tippy toes to plant a kiss on Shiro’s lips. “Still have that hoverbike?”

“I do. Why?”

“I have something I want to show you.”

“May I ask what it is?”

“Nope.” Keith replied, making sure to pop the ‘p’. “Wait right here.” Keith said he quickly went back into his dorm to grab the backpack. “Come on, let’s go!” He said as he came back out, shut the door and grabbed Shiro’s hand, leading him down the corridor towards the North Exit.

As they sped across the desert Keith could feel his heart thumping against his chest harder than it usually did and he knew it wasn’t to do with the adrenaline that was currently running through him. Shiro had his arms wrapped tight around Keith’s waist and his head buried against Keith’s neck.

A few moments later Shiro adjusted his head so that his chin was now resting on Keith’s shoulder.

“So, handsome, can you tell me where we’re headed yet or?”

Keith felt his stomach fill with butterflies and a smile spread across his face at Shiro calling him ‘handsome’.

“I told you, it’s a surprise. Now close your eyes.” Keith had just spotted the rock formation he had spotted earlier. They were nearly there.

* * *

 

“You can open your eyes now.” Keith said as he brought the bike to a stop. Before them sat a little worn down shack.

“Keith, what is this?” Shiro asked as he unwrapped his arms from Keith’s waist and hopped off the bike.

“What does it look like? It’s a shack!” Keith said as he gestured towards it with both hands.

Shiro looked back at him. “You know what I mean.”

Keith smiled at Shiro as he too hopped off the bike. “I thought it could be a little place just for us. You know, without so many eyes on us.”

Shiro returned Keith’s smile. “Let’s take a look inside then.”

The interior of the shack was bare apart from an old sofa, a pile of cinder blocks and a couple of slabs of stone. All of which were in different corners of the shack.

“Bit dark isn’t it?” just as Shiro said that Keith had turned on the battery powered lantern he had stashed in his backpack.

“You were saying?”

Shiro laughed. “Always prepared no matter what eh?” He walked over to where Keith was, pulled him in and kissed him.

The kiss lasted for a few minutes, but it felt like forever to Keith. Whenever they kissed time slowed down for him and Keith forgot about everything else and just focused on them. It was in these moments that he felt richer than the richest man on Earth.

As their kiss ended Keith didn’t bother fighting his smile and he rested his head against Shiro’s.

“Now, why don’t we try to make this place more liveable?” Keith asked.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Shiro replied.

Throughout the night Keith and Shiro turned the shack into a fairly suitable living space.

They had moved the sofa so that is was now positioned in front of the window. They then took all of the cinder blocks and placed them in a rectangular shape before laying the bigger slab of stone on top of them to make a table.

After the stone slab was secured on top of the cinder blocks the pair decided that that was enough work for the night and flopped onto the sofa.

After a couple minutes of silence Keith decided to speak up. “Thirsty?” he asked.

“Very.” replied Shiro.

Keith nodded in acknowledgement before he got up from his seat and walked to where he had left his backpack by the shack’s front door.

A couple of minutes of rummaging around later Keith pulled two water bottles from the pack and chucked one in Shiro’s direction.

“Thank you.” Shiro said.

“Anytime.” Keith said as he sat back down.

As they sat in silence once more Keith leant back, resting his head on top of the sofa’s cushion, and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds that surrounded them.

He listened to the way the shack creaked and groaned every time the breeze picked up a bit.The sounds of far off coyotes howling. The way the springs in the sofa creaked each time one of them shifted their position slightly. The sound of Shiro’s breathing. Slowly, but surely all these sounds blurred into one and Keith found himself dozing off.

Keith was pretty much asleep when he woke up to Shiro calling his name.

“Keith. Keith, wake up.”

“What is it Takashi?” grumbled Keith as he opened his eyes and sat up properly.

“You’re going to get a crick in your neck if you sleep like that. Come here.” Shiro gestured to Keith to come and lay on top of him. Being as tired as Keith was he didn’t hesitate.

Once Keith had gotten himself comfortable Shiro’s arms wrapped round his waist. Before he gave himself into sleep again Keith looked up at Shiro, who was gazing out the window, up at the stars. He appeared to be deep in thought.

“Hey. What are you thinking about?”

“Us. Space. Everything in between.” came Shiro’s reply.

“Care to elaborate?”

Shiro smiled. “Of course. Remember the place I took you to, when we first left the Garrison, and how we joked about, once we get up there, that we would leave Earth behind and just get lost in space together?”

“I remember it like it was yesterday. Why?”

“It got me thinking. We’re both training to be pilots so there’s always the possibility that we’ll never get up there at the same time. So how exactly are we going to pull off our plan?” Shiro turned his gaze towards Keith, his gunmetal eyes sparkling slightly in the starlight.

Keith reached up and cupped Shiro’s right cheek, to which Shiro leaned into, and smiled. “Takashi, it’s us, we’ll find a way. Believe me.”

“I believe you. Now why don’t we get some sleep before we have to endure the long trip back?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Keith returned his hand to his side and nuzzled against Shiro’s neck while he allowed sleep to take him over fully.


	4. Last Kiss

It had been nearly a year since Keith and Shiro had gotten to know each other and had started dating. For the most part they'd been inseparable. Until lately, that was.

Over the past couple months Shiro had been having a lot of test and drills. Normally he wouldn't have thought anything of it had Shiro not told him that only a select few were doing them. Keith was intrigued by this, even after Shiro had told him that the increase of tests was probably because the end of the year was close.

While he knew that there was a good chance that he was right (his own tests and drill had increases, but not in the way Shiro's had) his gut told him that something else was going on.

For a while Keith had tried talking to Shiro about the idea that something else was going on, but he wasn't having any of it. He was absolutely positive that these were just the average end of year tests. Nothing more, nothing less. After sometime he'd completely given up on mentioning the subject.

Keith's last class of the day had ended fifteen or so minutes ago so he was currently on Shiro's bed, waiting for him. Earlier that day, just before classes had started, Shiro had asked him to swing by his dorm at the end of the day. Why? Keith didn't know. Before Shiro had a chance to tell him the alarm had run and they'd been pushed apart by the groups of cadets that were quickly making their way to class.

Out of boredom, Keith was about to let his mind wander when Shiro walked in.

"Keith! You're here! Give me a second to freshen up and we'll go alright?" Shiro asked as he entered the bathroom.

"Sure thing. Mind telling me where we're going exactly?" Keith replied.

"Actually it's not really where we're going that's important, but what we'll see when we get there."

"Is that so?"

"Yes-" Shiro said as he exited the bathroom "-ready to go?"

"Yeah." Keith said hopping off of Shiro's bed.

As they made their way across the desert Keith watched as the scenery raced past them. They'd been coming out here long enough now that he was able to recognize certain areas. By everything he was recognizing he began to believe they were headed for their shack. That belief was short lived as a few moments later Keith realised that he no longer recognized where they were. He didn't bother asking where they were headed as he had a pretty good feeling that he knew the answer. Shiro would tell him that he had to be patient and he'd see when they got there.

A few minutes later Keith watched as the sand dunes that had been around them for a while now began to decline in size. It wasn't long before the dunes completely disappeared.

A few more minutes later and rocks began to appear. As time got on the rocks began to increase in size to the point that they began to form what appeared to be wall on either side of them. That was when Keith realised that they were entering a canyon. From what he knew there was only one canyon near the Garrison and cadets were prohibited from going anywhere near it. Every cadet that did the flying drills knew this as the instructor reminded them every single day.

After a while the canyon started to become narrow. It got so narrow that Shiro was forced to stop the hoverbike. Keith was first off the bike. As Shiro got off he turned to face him. "Where to now?" he asked.

Shiro pointed to the narrowest part of the canyon. "There's a passage through there. On the other side is what I wanted to show you."

"Alright, let's get going then."

"Hang on. Just in case someone comes by we need to hide the bike."

After they finished hiding the bike they made their way for the passage.

As they made their way through the passage Keith found it to be not as narrow as he had originally thought. It was, however, a lot colder. Then again, what had he been expecting? Dusk was fast approaching and anyone who knew anything about the desert knew that

the nights were a lot worse than the days. If Shiro noticed Keith's discomfort he didn't say anything.

A little while later Shiro spoke. "Since we're nearly there would you mind closing your eyes?"

"You know, all of this is starting to feel really familiar Takashi." Keith replied as he closed his eyes. The second they were closed he felt Shiro take his hand. While he was positive that this was to guide him and make sure he didn't walk into anything, there was always the chance that Shiro had wanted to hold his hand for the majority of the time that they'd been out here and now he had an excuse to.

"Careful. This bit is a bit of a squeeze." Shiro said.

Once Keith reached the part that Shiro had warned him about he couldn't help, but laugh slightly. It was a little tight, sure, but it was nowhere near "a bit of a squeeze" like he had said it was. When Keith got to the end of this part he felt the walls that had just been brushing against him completely disappear. They must've finally exited the passage.

"You can open your eyes now."

Before them was an oasis. It wasn't any old oasis though, it was a canyon oasis. This part of the canyon was a lot bigger and more open than the rest of it. It also had a perfect view of the sky. There was a small waterfall spilling from high up in the canyon wall. On either side of the pool of water were two small fever trees. As expected, the trees weren't the only sign of greenery. There were a couple of bushes and quite a few different types of grasses around the area. In the center was a picnic.

Keith smiled. "Takashi, is this what I think it is?" he asked, still looking at the set up in amazement. Nobody had ever done something like this for him.

He felt Shiro wraps his arms around his waist, pull him in close and kiss his neck. "Yeah, it is. We've been together for nearly a year now and I thought we'd do something special in celebration."

That last part confused Keith. Surely they should be doing something special on the day of when they met rather than a few months before? Was something going on that he wasn't aware of? He decided against voicing that thought, if something was going on Shiro would, hopefully, tell him later on.

The picnic was perfect. Shiro had somehow managed to get his hands on prohibited food, some of which were Keith's favourites.

Night had fallen a few minutes after they'd finished eating and currently Keith and Shiro were talking and stargazing. Their conversation wasn't based around any particular subject. Instead they were just talking about whatever came to mind. Still Shiro hadn't said anything about why they were celebrating early. Perhaps he should ask?

Before he had a chance to he saw something streak across the sky. That something was then followed by a couple others. Shortly after that a lot of these streaks started to streak across the sky.

"What the?"

"Finally," Shiro said "I was starting to worry I'd brought you out here on the wrong night."

That was when Keith realised what those streaks across the sky was. It was a meteor shower! Now he understood why they were celebrating so early.

Towards the end of the shower Shiro moved closer to Keith and gently kissed his cheek. "Did you enjoy that?" he asked.

"Very much so." Keith replied.

"I'm glad. It's too late to head back to the Garrison so we should probably head straight for the shack. Go back to the Garrison in the morning."

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Alright, let's go." Shiro said. He then got up, grabbed the bag that he'd previously put all of the picnic stuff into and then headed for the passage, with Keith following close behind.

During the journey back to the shack Keith had felt a sudden change in Shiro's mood. Like he always did when they were on the bike, he had his arms wrapped around Shiro's waist. He wasn't relaxed like he had been on the ride to the canyon. Instead he was tense and rigid. As well as that when they'd gotten onto the bike Keith had noticed a somewhat distance look in Shiro's eyes, as if something was troubling him.

Shiro's sudden change had brought back the thoughts Keith had, had early. Something was going on and whatever that thing was it was troubling Shiro.

Since there had been multiple times throughout the evening for him to tell him whatever it was, Keith decided that once they reached the shack he would take matters into his own hands and ask.

As they walked through the shack's door, Keith took a deep breath, gathered up his courage and asked. "Takashi, what's going on? Your entire mood has changed ever since we left the canyon."

Shiro turned to face him. "You noticed that, huh?" he sighed. "I was planning to tell you tomorrow, but I might as well tell you now. We should probably sit down first though." Shiro said, gesturing towards the sofa.

"Alright..." Keith replied, reluctantly making his way towards the sofa. He was starting to get worried now.

Once they had sat down he watched intently as Shiro composed himself and prepared himself to tell Keith whatever it was.

"The tests I've been taken recently haven't been because it's the end of the year. I've been taking them because the Garrison is preparing a mission and only wants the best to go. I found out yesterday that I'm to be the pilot."

All of the worry Keith had felt previously disappeared completely and was now replaced by joy, for Shiro. "Takashi! That's awesome! What's the mission?"

"I-uh- I don't know yet. I suppose they'll tell me closer to the date. What I do know is that the mission should be taking place in a few months time." he replied.

A few months time? Hmmm...

Keith moved closer to Shiro and, without warning, pulled him into deep passionate kiss. As Keith moved himself on to Shiro's lap he knew exactly where he wanted this to go and boy, he'd never been more ready. "We don't have a lot of time then. Better not waste it."

 

Over the next few months Keith and Shiro spent as much time as they possible could with each other.

As time went on Keith's feelings towards Shiro leaving began to become split. On one hand he was excited and happy for Shiro. On the other hand for the past few weeks Keith had been getting a feeling of dread that something bad was going to end up happening. Even so, Keith was sure that this feeling was just due to the fact that he'd have to go a year without having Shiro by his side, but that was fine. He'd be absoltuely fine. The year would fly by and Shiro would be back before he knew it!

Anyway he still had a few more days till he had to figure out what he was going to do while Shiro was on his mission.

Right now Keith was in Shiro's room, waiting for him to come back from a preparation meeting. He had been for a couple of hours now. However he didn't mind, it gave him time to do some studying.

Keith was coming to the end of the page he was currently reading when the door opened. Looking up from his textbook he watched as Shiro entered the room. He smiled. "Takashi."

"Keith. I hope you weren't waiting here for too long." he replied.

"It's fine. It gave me time to do some studying."

After closing, and locking, the door behind him, Shiro sat down on the bed, pulled Keith in close and began to kiss him.

"Mmm, what about your roommate?" Keith asked between kisses.

"Don't worry about him. He's staying with someone else tonight."

"Alright. If you're sure."

"I am. Now shhh and let's have some fun."

 

The next few days passed by faster than either of them wanted to.

They were now in a car that was making it's way towards the launch site. Shiro was beyond nervous so Keith was holding his hand which was helping a little.

When they arrived to the launch site Keith and Shiro only had a couple of minutes to say good bye.

"You okay?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, just really nervous." Shiro replied.

"You'll be fine Takashi and I'll be here when you get back."

"I know you will be baby."

They shared one last kiss before Shiro was whisked away to be prepared for blast off.

Keith watched as Shiro and the Holts made their way towards the ship. Next to Keith was a girl he was guessing was a couple or so years younger than him and her mother.

The girl looked up at him. "That's my brother and father!" she said, pride in her voice.

"Yeah? Well that's my boyfriend."

"You must be really proud of him huh?"

"Very proud."

"Blast off in 3. 2. 1." said an automated voice over the intercom.

As the ship blasted off Keith couldn't stop smiling. "See you when you get back Takashi."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm sorry about the really long break between chapters with exams, moving house and college related things I haven't had the time to write this fic as much as I would like. And just as a heads up I am starting college in a few days so it might be a little while till the next chapter (going to make sure it's not as long a waiting time as it was for this chapter, don't worry!) but while you wait I do have a mer!sheith fic up on my events account @bisexualsinspacee that i wrote for sheith week so if you've enjoyed this so far you should enjoy that! Anyway that's all for now and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!


	5. Come Back... Be Here

It had been a couple of months since the Kerberos mission had departed. In order to distract himself from missing Shiro, Keith had thrown himself into his studies. His hope was that by the time Shiro came back he would be done with his studies, he’d be graduated and somehow, someway he and Shiro would go on the next mission together.

During the time when he wasn’t studying or sleeping, Shiro was the only thing he kept on thinking about. Up until now Keith hadn’t known you could be homesick for a person.

Keith was on his way back to his dorm. On his way back he passed the staff room. At this time of day it was normally empty, but today instructors and cadets alike were crowding around the doorway.

Normally he wouldn’t have given this any thought and would have continued on to his room, but something told him to investigate what was going on. So he did.

Keith skillfully manoeuvred through the crowd until he was able to see the TV screen. The second he saw Shiro’s face on the screen and he saw the news caption he felt his heart drop. The Kerberos Mission had been lost.

Suddenly nothing mattered anymore. The one person that believed him in. The one person who loved him. Was gone. Shiro was not coming home. “No,” Keith whispered. “No, no, no.” This wasn’t happening. There was no way this was actually happening. This had to be a bad dream.

Keith slowly backed out of the room. He could feel everyone’s eyes fall on him. If they hadn’t known about him and Shiro, they certainly did now.

Before anyone could stop him, Keith legged it to Shiro’s room. As he ran, he could feel his heart shattering. Once he reached Shiro’s room he shut and locked the door.

Keith let the tears he had been fighting fall freely as he leant against the door and sunk down to the floor. He felt as if he was in a nightmare that he had no hope of escaping.

He didn’t know how long he sat there. Keith’s mind kept repeating everything that had happened up until that news report. The more he thought about it, the more he started to focus on one part of it. “Kerberos Mission disappears due to pilot error.”

Pilot error...That couldn’t be right. Shiro was the best of the best, that’s why they chose him. There was no way this could be Shiro’s fault. Somebody was trying to cover up what really happened out there and he needed to find out who and why.

Keith dried his eyes with the back of his hand. “Don’t worry Takashi.” he whispered. “I’ll find out what happened. They won’t get away with this.”

Over the next few days, rather than focusing on his classes, Keith was focusing on how to get into the file archive.

Normally if someone was trying to get their hands on top secrets files they’d do it by hacking into the system. Even if Keith knew how to hack, he wouldn’t risk it that way. The only computer that would have those files would be Commander Iverson’s and before he had the chance to he’d be caught. It would be wasted effort.

Fortunately every file, including the top secrets ones, had a physical copy that was stored in the archive. All he had to do was get in without being caught. Keith was hoping that was easier than it sounded.

The archive was, more often than not, heavily guarded. However tonight there was little to no one and that was all thanks to someone who had been trying to break in the last couple of nights.

Keith looked away from the building plans he’d managed to acquire and looked to the clock on Shiro’s nightstand. Thirty minutes till midnight, he should start to get ready.

Midnight was the most opportune time to go there. This was when the cameras went down for roughly an hour for scheduled maintenance.

Rather than wear his cadet uniform, it restricted his movement and would be easy to spot, he was wearing red white and black boots, a pair of black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, a belt with two satchels, a read and white jacket, a red scarf and Shiro’s fingerless gloves.

Once he was dressed, Keith grabbed one of Shiro’s backpacks and began to pack things into it. Whenever or not he got caught tonight didn’t matter. He wasn’t staying.

In the backpack he’d packed food and water, a couple of maps, a flashlight, a polaroid camera and film and some stationary bits. Heavier items had been moved to the shack a few days in advance.

After double checking that he had everything, Keith put the backpack on and made his way to the archive.

It was five minutes until midnight. Keith peaked around the corner where the archive door was. The door was locked by a key card system. Fortunately he had grabbed a key card from the lost and found earlier that day. Honestly Keith had been shocked to find as many as he did. You’d think for a military place they’d look after them a lot better.

Two minutes till midnight and Keith watched as Commander Iverson and one of the instructors walked out. They were talking in hushed whispers so he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever it was Iverson seemed to be getting more and more annoyed.

They walked down the corridor, away from Keith. Once they were out of sight, he checked the time. It was midnight. He now had an hour to find what he needed and leave.

Keith had lost count of how many files he’d gone through. Twenty? Thirty? Forty? Fifty!? All these files and he still hadn’t found what he needed. He was starting to think that it didn’t exist.

He was about to open another draw and go through another twenty or so files when he heard the door open and voices. Immediately he turned off his flashlight and dropped into a crouch.

“You're sure you saw someone come in here cadet?”

“Positive, sir!”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t a member of staff?”

“No offense, sir, but how many staff members sneak around out of uniform and have a backpack on?”

The room was dark so Keith had a slight advantage there, however thanks to the filing cabinets and shelves that had stacks of boxes on he was going to have to rely on his hearing to know where they were.

As silently as he could, Keith maneuvered through the maze of filing cabinets and shelving units. He stopped every now and then to listen to where the instructor and cadet were. So far he’d been lucky and they hadn’t come close to where he was.

He was nearly at the door when the lights came on. Keith was made temporarily blind while his eyes adjusted. Once they had adjusted that was when Keith saw it in an open box next to him. It was Shiro’s file.

He grabbed it immediately and continued towards the door. When he reached it he quickly exited the archive and began to sprint down the hallway. He was headed for the North Exit because that was where he had hidden the hoverbike last night.

Keith had just started the bike’s engine when he heard a chorus of shouting. If he didn’t know better he’d say that probably about half the Garrison was now after him. Without wasting any time, he raced out of there and started to make his way to the shack. The shack was so far from the Garrison that if they did decide to go after him in vehicles they’d turn back around before they’d even get halfway as there was no way they’d reach the shack and get back before dawn.

 

By the time Keith reached the shack the dark night sky had been replaced by the soft pink sky of early dawn. He parked the hoverbike next to the shack and covered it with a dust cover. He then made his way inside.

Keith took off his backpack and sat on the sofa. He proceeded to open the backpack and take out Shiro’s file.

He looked at the file for a minute. This file contained the one thing Keith had wanted to know for so long. The truth. Now that he had it in his hands he wasn’t so sure he wanted to find out what happened. No matter what it said it wouldn’t change the fact that Shiro was never coming back.  _‘Screw it. I need to know.’_  he thought and opened it.

Not a minute after opening Keith threw it across the shack and yelled out in frustration. Of course everything in it that wasn’t public knowledge had been redacted. This was just typical of the Garrison. He had just risked getting caught and possibly getting charged for treason for absolutely nothing.

Keith closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on calming himself. That was it. It was over. He was never going to find out the truth. He now had no idea what he was going to do. Previously he had decided that he would try and expose the Garrison with the information from the file. He couldn’t do that anymore.

There was nothing keeping him in this desert. He could leave, but where to? Back to civilization perhaps? Find a job and try to move on from all this? That did seem to be the only option now.  _‘Fine.’_  he thought.  _‘I’ll go tonight, can’t risk that the Garrison won’t be trying to find me during the day.’_

Once night fell he packed the essentials and took off across the desert on the hoverbike. The moon was bright enough that Keith didn’t have any need of the hoverbike’s lights.

As he sped across the desert Keith spotted the outline of a rock outcropping. As he got closer he soon recognised it. It was the canyon that Shiro had taken him to a few months before Kerberos. 

He knew the canyon lead to a dead end, yet rather than changing direction and finding and alternate route he continued to head towards it. Keith was drawn towards it, and not because of the memories he had of him and Shiro. It was like something was calling to him.

When the canyon started to narrow, he jumped off of the hoverbike and hide the bike, like they’d done that night. As he made his way through the passage Keith noticed another passage off to the side. Since he already knew where the passage ahead of him lead, he decided to take this side passage.

It was a helluva lot smaller than the other one and part of him wanted to turn back. Whatever was down here wasn’t worth getting stuck for, his inner voice told him. The other part of him told him to continue. There had to be something at the end of this and it wonder would probably eat away at him till he returned, so he might as well get it over with now.

Just when he thought he was about to get stuck, Keith stumbled out of the passage into an opening. The desert was still being illuminated by the moon. It wasn’t long before he spotted what looked like a cave opening. Intrigued, he went over to explore it.

The cave was pitch black so Keith got out his flashlight. The beam of light hit one of the walls and he noticed something on it. Interested, he made his way over to investigate.

The wall was covered in cave drawings.  _‘Strange… I wonder, is there any more?’_  He cast his flashlight over the other walls and indeed they were covered. The ones that truly caught his attention were those of a giant lion.

He looked up at the one that depicted people surrounding the lion and were worshiping it.  _‘Guess I was wrong. There is something keeping me here.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A//N: i think the next chapter will be the last one. as well as finally catching up to canon i just don't know how to continue it. so i think it would be best to just end it rather than continuing the rather irritating massive gaps between updates. also, ending it in the next chapter means that i can move on and start writing bigger and better sheith based fics! so yeah, i hope you guys understand and thank you for spending your time reading this! it means a lot <3


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